On this day, November 18th in 1985, the Washington Redskins lost their quarterback to one of the most horrific injuries ever broadcast on live TV.

Joe Theismann suffered a horrific compound fracture of his leg while being sacked by New York Giants linebackers Lawrence Taylor and Harry Carson during a Monday Night Football game at RFK Stadium.

Theismann said during a 2005 interview with the New York Times:

“The pain was unbelievable, it snapped like a breadstick. It sounded like two muzzled gunshots off my left shoulder. Pow, pow! It was at that point, I also found out what a magnificent machine the human body is. Almost immediately, from the knee down, all the feeling was gone in my right leg. The endorphins had kicked in, and I was not in pain.”

An ESPN poll voted it, the NFL’s “Most Shocking Moment in History”.

The Washington post dubbed it, “The Hit That No One Who Saw It Can Ever Forget”.

Which is absolutely true. You can’t unsee it no matter how hard you try.

On this day, November 4th in 1990, the Washington Redskins equaled what was at the time*, the greatest comeback in club history with a 41-38 overtime win at Detroit.

Washington were down by 21 points in the third quarter (17 points entering the fourth quarter), but 363 second-half yards from Jeff Rutledge rallied the Redskins.

Chip Lohmiller kicked a 34-yard field goal in overtime to seal the victory.

Art Monk (13/168), Gary Clark (8/132) and Ricky Sanders (11/132) ALL had over 100 yards receiving. Gerald Riggs had 91 yards and 2 touchdowns. Rutledge came in for Stan Humphries after his third interception.

The Redskins finished with an incredible 676 yards of total offense.

The Redskins went on to finish the season 10-6 but lost to the 49ers in the playoffs.

On this day, October 28th back in 1956, the Washington Redskins defeated the Chicago Cardinals 17-14.

Washington overcame an early 14 point deficit. Sam Baker got the Redskins on the board with a 22-yard field goal, and then two Al Dorow second half touchdowns – the first, a 34-yard pass to Dick James, and the second, a 40-yard pass to Steve Mellinger – carved out a tough Redskins win.

For the Cardinals, Max Boydston reeled in a 39 yard pass from Lamar McHan and Johnny Olszewski ran for a 7-yard touchdown early in the first; but it was all downhill from there. Both TDs were converted by Pat Summerall. Yes, THAT Pat Summerall. He played for the Cardinals from 1953-1957. He passed away in 2013 after many years of NFL service both on the field and in the broadcast booth.

The Cardinals were in Chicago from 1920 until 1960 when they moved to St. Louis. They moved to Phoenix in 1988 and after 6 years as the Phoenix Cardinals, were re-named the Arizona Cardinals in 1994.

On this day, October 21st waaay back in 1934, the Boston Redskins defeated the Philadelphia Eagles 6-0.

Rather than offer up some pallid game reference, I thought I would post a great excerpt I found at a site called FenwayParkDiaries.com:

Boston and Battles beat Philadelphia

October 21, 1934 … Displaying superior rushing ability, but balked by penalties and fumbles for three periods, the Boston Redskins called upon the fighting ability of Cliff Battles to score the touchdown that pulled out a 6-0 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles at Fenway Park. On two previous occasions, the Redskins shot the ball over the goal only to have the scores called back because of penalties. Once a fumble on the two-yard line stopped a touchdown and twice, intercepted passes inside the 10-yd line halted the Redskins.

he first non-touchdown, a 22-yd run by Steve Hokuff was called back because of and offside penalty. Early in the third period, the Redskins marched 82 yards to the 10-yard line where Cliff Battles notched the score, only to have it called back for a back in motion before the snap. The game was just too much Cliff Battles

On this day, October 7th in 2007, the Washington Redskins crushed the Detroit Lions 34-3.

Jason Campbell was a near perfect 23 of 29 for 248 yards. He threw two touchdown passes for a stellar quarterback rating of 128.3. Antwaan Randle El led all Redskin receivers with 100 yards on 7 receptions.

Not only did Carlos Rogers actually catch a ball that hit him in the hands, he returned it 61 yards for a touchdown (this was before getting his eyes fixed of course – if you remember, he couldn’t catch a cold).

Sean Taylor had a 35-yard interception return.

Check out this clip of Sean gunning off the Lions as the Skins come out of the tunnel for the game and getting jacked up before the game even starts – near the end of the clip. RIP brother – you are certainly missed and never forgotten. Thanks YouTube…

On this day, September 30th, in 2012, the Washington Redskins scored a come from behind victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Billy Cundiff kicked a 41 yard field goal to give Washington a 24-22 victory, after Robert Griffin III executed a near perfect 2-minute drill with 1:42 to play. He completed 3 straight passes, before taking off on a 15-yard scamper that put Cundiff in range.

Griffin also ran for a 5-yartd touchdown earlier in the game, and finished the day 26 of 35 for 323 yards.

On this day, September 23rd, way back in 1962, the Washington Redskins scored a come from behind victory over the Cleveland Browns.

Bobby Mitchell hauled in a 50 yard pass from Norm Snead in the 4th quarter to eke out a 17-16 win. It was a tough day for Snead who completed only 8 passes and was sacked 4 times. Mitchell caught 3 passes for 94 yards of Snead’s 147.

On this day, September 16th waaaaay back in 1937, the Washington Redskins defeated the New York Giants 13-3 at Griffith Stadium.

This game could quickly and concisely be described as a “Riley Smith” game. After all, the Redskins opened the scoring when Riley Smith kicked a field goal in the first quarter. The Giants tied it at three with their own field goal in the second quarter and it stayed that way until the 4th quarter when Riley Smith intercepted a pass and returned it 58 yards for a touchdown. Which Riley Smith then converted to make the score 10-3 Redskins. Riley Smith added a field goal late in the fourth to make it 13-3 and put the game out of reach.

Despite the great game by Smith, this game has more historical significance.

First of all, it was the very first time that the WASHINGTON Redskins beat the New York Giants. While they had beaten the Giants three times before in the franchise’s five year tenure, it was while they were in Boston – once as the Boston Braves (14-6, October 9, 1932) and twice as the Boston Redskins (21-20, October 8, 1933; 14-0, December 6, 1936).

But most significantly, this game marked the debut of Slingin’ Sammy Baugh – the rookie tailback sensation from Texas Christian University – and the Redskins first round draft pick.

He played a full sixty minutes, and completed 11 of 16 passes for 115 yards. It wasn’t earth shattering, but it WAS the beginning.

On this day, September 9th in 1969, the Washington Redskins lost the top pass catcher in the NFL when Bobby Mitchell decided to retire at the age of 34.

“I couldn’t stand being on the team and being on the bench,” Mitchell offered at a news conference at the time.

Despite being the top active receiver in the NFL in 1969 with 521 catches (7053 yards), he had been reduced to a reserve role (Washington had a fleet of young receivers), and was already planning on retiring at season’s end.

When he retired, Mitchell sat behind only Raymond Berry in passes caught, and only Jim Brown in total yardage (14,078).